Online Famiglia
by silenceia
Summary: Sawada Tsunayoshi was nine when she discovered MMORPGs. Two years later, her birthday present is a NerveGear. Fem!Tsuna
1. Prologue

**A/N: So here we go, a new story. To those wondering, it was inspired by Araceil's House of Cards (go read it, it's awesome!) and some of you might find that there are some similarities. That is only in the first chapter, though! Our plots are completely different as far as I'm aware! The similarities are because I genuinely feel that this is how the characters would act, and writing them any other way would feel _wrong._ I've talked this over with Araceil, too, and she's completely cool with everything.**

 **Anyway, onto the story! Obviously, I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn or Sword Art Online.  
**

* * *

Sawada Tsunayoshi was nine when she first discovered MMORPGs.

It had been a bad day even by her standards. It had started with her falling out of her bed, realising she was late for school, and contemplating staying at home altogether because she just _knew_ that the day was only going to get worse. But her Kaa-chan wouldn't have it and made her go to school, even after she fell down the stairs.

She was late, walked into class accompanied by mocking gazes and whispered insults that turned into full-blown laughter when she tripped, fell right on her face, and everyone probably saw her panties. And to add to her embarrassment, the Maths test that was returned in that class was graded with a twelve. Which the teacher of course proceeded to announce to the whole of the class. And it got even worse after _that_. By lunch time, two of her textbooks and her lunch money had not-so-mysteriously vanished, which meant she had to go hungry, and the teacher scolded her once again.

And, being hungry, she'd done even worse in gym class than she usually did - she fell flat on her face a total of four times and was, again, laughed at. And was made to clean up after the class by herself.

The only advantage that came from that was that the bullies wouldn't wait for her that long and had gone home by the time she was finished. Though at that point she felt so tired and hungry that she was prone to hurting herself by tripping worse than the bullies would.

Case in point, she accidentally walked into the boys' changing rooms. Thankfully, they were empty, but still…

In the boys' changing rooms, she found it. The magazine.

MMO Today.

That was the beginning.

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

At ten years old, Sawada Tsunayoshi was a rather sad example for a member of society. Too small, too weak, too stupid, too clumsy, too dame. Not particularly pretty, and definitely not well-kempt. Her clothes tended to have rips in it, her legs were too skinny, her body too bony, her hair usually a mess and somewhat greasy because didn't shower as often as she should, and most mornings she woke too late to brush it sufficiently. She tended to have dark shadows under her eyes because she had a habit of staying up late playing games.

That was her. Dame-Tsuna, the no-good loser, only good for providing lunch money, entertainment and the occasional stress relief.

But it was fine, because Tsuna had two things that made her life bearable.

One of them was her Kaa-chan, and Kaa-chan loved her unconditionally. Kaa-chan was sweet, the prettiest Kaa-chan in the entire world, and the best cook ever. Tsuna wanted to be just like her when she was grown up, though she knew it was impossible, because Tsuna was dame.

The other thing that made her life okay was Online-Role-Playing Games. Online, she could be someone else, she could fight, be powerful, do all those things that she never could in real life. Those games were her escape. Sadly, that didn't help her in school, in fact, Kaa-chan had even (jokingly, but still!) said that if she played less games, she'd be better at school. But how could she give up the one thing she didn't suck at?

When she found out about the first ever VRMMORPG, Sword Art Online, she became obsessed. To be able to live in a different world, where anyone could become whoever they wanted to be, where no one would know she was Dame-Tsuna? Where she could walk with her head held high with no one to bully her, call her names, and take away her food?

 _She Wanted That._

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

"Kaa-chan, did you hear about that new game?"

"Kaa-chan, can I please have a NerveGear?"

"It's not dangerous, it's already been tested! I read that it works with - uhm - microwave transceivers that send signals to the brain. See, I already did lots of research! Please, Kaa-chan!"

"It can be my birthday present! Or Christmas present! Or both rolled into one! Come on, it's my eleventh birthday soon!"

"I'd only play if I'd already done my homework!"

"I'll quit all other games, Kaa-chan!"

"If I work really hard and get scores over twenty in school, can I have a NerveGear? You could even take it away if I do badly in school! _Pleeeaaase_ , Kaa-chan!"

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

Tsuna's birthday arrived and even though the game wasn't in the stores yet, Tsuna was hopeful. And indeed, inside her birthday card, Kaa-chan had written, _"Tsu-chan gets one wish if she does her best in school and shows improvement! Work hard, Tsu-chan!"_

Tsuna worked harder than she ever had in her entire life in a bid to prove to her mother that she was serious about her promises. She quit all her other games, banished all manga from her room, and _studied_. It was the hardest thing she had ever done and she wanted to go back to her normal lifestyle _so badly_ , but then she'd see the poster with the Sword Art Online Advertisement hanging above her desk, and her willpower would be renewed.

Kaa-chan was _so proud_ when Tsuna scored a 30 of all things! It was the best feeling ever, entirely worth the hard work.

"Papa will be so happy and proud of his smart little Tsu-chan!" Kaa-chan exclaimed, smiling happily at the test she'd pinned to the fridge. "I knew you could do it!"

Tsuna glowed with pride. "So, about SAO…?" she asked tentatively, hoping to take advantage of her Kaa-chan's brilliant mood. "The launch is in five days. People are already queuing up to buy the game, but I don't think we have to worry about that in a small town like Namimori. Or we could buy it online. Or, or, aren't you friends with the guy from the electronics shop?"

"Hmm," Kaa-chan mused playfully, tapping the corner of her mouth with a finger. "Do you promise to work _reeaaallly_ hard and continue to improve your schoolwork?"

"Yes!" Tsuna exclaimed, bouncing up and down on her toes excitedly. "I swear!"

"Mmm… Okay then!" Sawada Nana said, and Tsuna ran forward, fully intent on stormily hugging her Kaa-chan. She tripped though, and fell flat on her nose. But when Kaa-chan knelt beside her, she looked up with a radiant smile, happier than she had been in a long time.

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

 **November 6th, 2022**

Tsuna could hardly sleep the night before her Kaa-chan went to the electronics store, she was that excited. Instead, she stayed up and read through the descriptions of Sword Art Online, accounts from beta testers, looked at pictures… anything she could get her hands on. During breakfast, she knocked over her cup of milk, fell off her chair _twice_ , and somehow her food ended up in her hair. It did nothing to calm her down.

The four hours her Kaa-chan was out of the house to buy the NerveGear and game for her, she spent pacing through the whole house and fell down the stairs once or thrice. Even that didn't curb her enthusiasm in the least.

Finally, _finally_ , Kaa-chan came back. "Tsu-chaaaan," she sang happily. Tsuna might as well have teleported for how fast she appeared at the door, eye locked on Nana's shopping bag. With a happy smile, Nana pulled out a box. "The last one available," she said. "So lucky I didn't go later!"

"Thankyouthankyou _thankyou_!" Tsuna exclaimed. "Can I try it out now? Please, Kaa-chan?" She aimed a pout at her mother.

"Hmm, have you done your homework?" Nana asked, attempting to sound stern, but her sweet smile ruined the effect.

"Yes, Kaa-chan!" Tsuna lied. But really, how could she have even sat down to do homework? She was too excited!

"Well, okay then," Nana decided. "But don't play too long!"

"I won't, Kaa-chan!" Tsuna said, aiming a beaming smile at her mother. Then she snatched the box from her mother's hands and ran upstairs to her room.

It was the last time they would speak to one another for years to come.

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

As it happened, the first warnings against putting on the NerveGear and logging into SAO popped up on TV about an hour later. Had Sawada Nana seen them, she could still have stopped her daughter, as Tsuna had suddenly felt extremely guilty for lying to her mother about having done her homework, and so resolved to at least do her History essay.

Unfortunately, it was only ten minutes after Tsuna had disappeared to her room that the phone rang, and Nana instantly headed over since the ringtone, an Italian ballad, told her that it was her beloved husband calling. Overjoyed, she listened as Iemitsu told her he was coming home soon, he only had to finish a little project and then he would be coming home to his sweet, sweet Nana and his darling princess Tunafishie. After much giggling and flirting, Iemitsu had to get back to work.

"I've got to go, Nana-love. Work's calling, we're building an adventure park for the penguins, and a shipment of bricks just arrived. I love you soooo much, Nana!"

Nana giggled. Iemitsu was such a romantic. "I love you more, Iemitsu!"

"Not possible. I love Nana the most!" Iemitsu proclaimed, and then hung up on his blushing wife.

The phone call had taken about thirty minutes. Tsuna's homework only took twenty.

Humming happily, Nana returned to the living room to finish her cleaning. She was dusting off a picture frame holding a photo of Tsuna as an adorable child when words from the TV drifted over and penetrated the fog of happiness that she was in.

"…NerveGear. I repeat, do _not_ remove the NerveGear. Specialists are already looking into the matter, please stay put. A solution will be found shortly." Nana looked at the TV. NerveGear, that was the thingy that Tsuna had needed to play that new game she had worked so hard for. Why would it be on the news?

She would learn the answer mere minutes later.

By then, it would already be too late.

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

By the end of the day, Tsuna was brought into the hospital, her distraught mother holding her hand and asking the medical personnel endlessly, "My Tsu-chan will be alright soon, yes?"

But Tsuna wouldn't wake up for two years, and even then she would never be the same again.

Nana tried to call her husband but couldn't reach him during the first few days. Instead, Iemitsu was the one to call her three days after Tsuna had been hospitalised, and before Nana could tell her husband what had happened to their beloved daughter, Iemitsu cut her off, telling her that he wouldn't be able to come home after all as one of his boss' closest employees, a man named Ganauche II, had been caught up in 'that dreadful gaming incident'.

"But Iemitsu," Nana attempted to speak up, but just then someone called for her husband in the background.

"Sorry, Nana-flower, I gotta go, I'm needed here! I love you sooo much! I might not be able to call in a while, so tell my little Princess Tunafishie that I've become a star, won't that be romantic?"

"Iemitsu, _please,_ you _have_ to come home-"

Someone called in the background again.

"I love you, Nana-flower! Bye!"

Her husband never called again after that; and no matter how much Nana tried, she wouldn't be able to reach Iemitsu over the phone, the number having been disconnected.

So eventually she stopped trying.

After a month, Tsuna and the other people caught in the Death Game, as it was now being called, were transferred to hospitals with accommodations for more permanent care. Nana would sit at her daughter's bedside and hold her small and thin hand, desperately watching Tsuna's chest rise and fall, hoping against hope that it would continue to do so. She would rent a cheap apartment in Tokyo near the hospital Tsuna was in so she would be close to her daughter, _just in case._

During those two years Tsuna was trapped in the game, Nana was offered a job at the hospital in the children's ward, her soothing and caring nature having made her invaluable to the stressed nurses and doctors there. Naturally, she accepted, it kept her busy and made her feel _needed_ , and she was near Tsuna and could see her anytime she wanted, since she didn't have to respect visiting times as much as an employee.

Eventually, Nana's sadness over her husband's absence would grow into bitter resentment and the desperation over Tsuna's fate would turn into a dull ache. Her innocence and naiveté would die a little more with every moment that her daughter was lying there in the hospital bed like a wax puppet. Nana would learn to stand on her own feet, but her independence came with a high prize.

Nothing would ever be the same again.


	2. Town of Beginnings

"Link Start!" Tsuna announced, her voice trembling with excitement. And then she was falling into a sea of bright colours. Suddenly, everything went white, and out of nowhere, screens popped up, declaring her five senses were connected to the NerveGear. Another screen appeared, telling her that the language in the game would be Japanese. And then another screen appeared.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  
LOGIN

username:  
password:  
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Tsuna thought hard. What should she name herself?

Definitely not her real name. She was in this game because she wanted to get away from being Dame-Tsuna. She wanted to be the opposite of Tsuna. Like… Tsuna, reversed. With a nod, she tapped on the screen and entered her names on the keyboard hovering in mid-air, silently marvelling at how real her body felt.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  
LOGIN

username: Natsu  
password: Not-Dame  
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

She tapped another button, and suddenly she was falling into more colours again, until she landed in a room where a person was stood on a pedestal - it looked just like her, only wearing dark blue clothes and some sort of leather-armour.

"Uhm, hello?" she tried speaking to the person. She didn't receive any answer. When she looked around unsurely, she noted large writing hovering above her.

CREATE YOUR AVATAR

"Ahh!" she exclaimed, slapping her forehead. "You're my avatar!"

Grinning in excitement, she examined it. Hmm, she'd make herself a little taller, but not too much. The eye colour could stay the same, but the mess that was her hair had to go - the haircut was the result of her Kaa-chan cutting her hair after someone had stuck gum into it. So she made it long enough to put it into a ponytail if she so chose, spiky, and blond. Kind of like her favourite anime-character.

Frowning, she looked at the avatar that she was going to be. Something was still missing… it looked too... young. That was right, no one would ever take her seriously looking so young. And girly. It was definitely too girly. A lot of male players looked down on girls or so she'd heard, she _really_ wanted to avoid that.

It took her a while, but she eventually somehow figured out how to age up her avatar until it looked less childish and more masculine. She could have switched the gender altogether, but that would be just _weird._

If she'd made herself a guy, would she have had a- would she have had an _it_? Would she have felt it? Tsuna blushed at the thought, letting out a small 'hiiieee' in distress. Hastily, she slapped her cheeks. And before she could think any more on the matter, she hit the 'Finish' - button and everything turned to colour, again.

"Hiieeeh! I forgot to change the clothes!" she yelled, but then her screen went black.

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

 _Thump._

 _Thump._

She could hear her heartbeat. Could feel the blood rushing in her veins. Could feel the strength of her body. Could feel the air rushing in and out of her lungs. She felt sunshine on her skin, wind rustling her hair.

Tsuna opened her eyes and found herself staring in awe at her surroundings. She was on an enormous plaza, a beautiful fountain in the middle of it. Tall buildings surrounded it, western and medieval in appearance, with columns and other decorations - she thought she'd seen photos of old Italian buildings and cities that looked remotely like this.

The sky above her was incredibly blue. The air smelt fresh and clean. All around her she could hear other players talking.

She looked down at herself. She was higher above the ground than she was used to. There were clunky boots on her feet, black pants, a dark blue shirt with a leather armour strapped around her chest. Black fingerless gloves around her hands that looked decidedly stronger than they did in the real world. She clenched her fists. Unclenched them. Clenched them again. Took a step forward, then another.

A laugh bubbled up in her and she let it out, marvelling at the sound, her voice not half as soft and high as she was used to.

Tsuna felt like she had finally come home after a very long day.

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

She spent the first few hours wandering around the town, Starting City. Simply enjoying the sun, the sights. She went to the marketplace and got herself a basic dagger and shoes that weren't so clunky and would allow her to move a little faster.

But mostly, she just strolled around and enjoyed the freedom of being able to move around as Not-Dame-Tsuna. It felt so _freeing_ , being able to walk with her head held high without anyone laughing at her, ridiculing her, or whispering about her. She'd have to remember to tell Kaa-chan all about it, how amazing this world was, she thought as she finally reached the city gates.

She took a look outside.

Lovely green meadows. Little creeks gluckering playfully among them. Butterflies flying around. Dirt roads crossing the grass.

 _Beautiful,_ she thought as she walked outside.

For about five minutes, everything stayed calm and peaceful. Then she saw an interesting flower a few steps into the meadow and went to look at it. Three steps in, a very mean looking boar materialised in front of her. A cursor and a health bar were hovering above it, as well as the words, «Frenzy Boar». An odd system sound played in Tsuna's ears, not that she cared because…

Because looking at a monster on a computer screen was entirely different than facing that same monster right in front of her.

Tsuna was the kind of person that was terrified of Chihuahuas.

"Hiiiieeeeehhhh!" she screamed as the boar charged her. She jumped back, then threw herself to the side and landed straight on her rear. A moment later, the boar slammed into her. "Hiiieeeh!" she yelled as she was thrown back and landed on her side, curled up.

Which was when she noticed that there was no pain. At all. Only an uncomfortable feeling of strength draining from her as her HP sank. It felt like a cold hand passing over her heart.

"Huh?" she muttered as she stood up, marvelling at how her body obeyed her commands.

No pain. She didn't hurt. The worst that could happen was her HP dropping to zero, and then she'd only respawn at wherever the resurrection point was.

Tsuna had _nothing_ to fear.

She stared at her hands. _Here, I can be whoever I want to be, do what ever I want to do. I'm, I'm free!_

She raised her head and stared at the Frenzy Boar, determination filling her. Tsuna drew her dagger and fell into position. Her weapon started to glow.

And then it was like she was guided by something else, her body lunging forwards and stabbing straight through the boar's head. The monster's health bar dropped, turned yellow, then red, than empty. It burst into glowing blue-green shards.

"Hiieehh!" Tsuna wailed. "I'm so sorry!"

A window popped up, telling her that she had won 24 XP, 30 Col, and two items - boar leather and meat.

Oh kami, she couldn't eat _that_! She'd _known_ that boar!

Yeah, time to go back to the city. She nodded. Clearly, the pretty meadows weren't so risk-free.

"Yeah, a relaxing, easy life in the city, that sounds nice - Hiiieeehh!" she screamed when a snarling wolf with red eyes appeared and charged her. She just barely managed to throw herself to the side, rolling out of the way of snapping jaws and dropping her dagger in the process. "Noooo!"

She scrambled to her feet, just as the wolf charged again. Tsuna wasn't quite sure how, but she managed to side-step it, but that only brought her further from her weapon, while the monster turned within moments and jumped at her again. She threw herself on her back and it sailed over her. "Hiiieeeh!" she wailed as she scrambled to get to her dagger, but what found its way into her hand instead was a stick on the ground. With a frightened yell, she hit the wolf with it before it broke.

Its jaws closed around her forearm. "Ahhh!" she screamed and used her free fist to hit the wolf in the head as often as she could, until it shattered. Exhausted, she dropped to the ground.

She wouldn't be scared of a Chihuahua again, that was for sure.

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

Tsuna made it back to the city two boars later, exhausted and her Health Bar only at a fifth of what it was supposed to be. Dragging her feet, she made her way to the market where she traded some of the items the monsters had dropped for money, and then she spent what seemed like a fortune on a recovery potion, for later use.

With a frown, she looked up at the sky. It had turned red, the sun was setting, and her in-game-clock pronounced it to be almost half past five - she'd been playing for over four hours. Kaa-chan would have dinner ready soon, and Tsuna was getting hungry, and she had _so_ much to tell her Kaa-chan.

But for some reason, she felt uneasy. Really uneasy.

She flinched and shrieked when the bell at the bell tower suddenly rang - a deep, reverberating sound that shook Tsuna to her bones. And then her vision went white and when she could see again, she was back at the plaza, confused and disoriented, just like the hundreds of players appearing by the second.

She started to shake.

Something _really_ bad was happening. She needed to _run._

Pushing through the crowd of confused players, she headed for the edge of the plaza.

And was thrown straight back by an invisible wall, right into another player. "Whoa, easy there!" he exclaimed - and his voice was _familiar._ "You alright? Hey, do you know what's going on?"

She looked up into the familiar face of Mochida Kensuke, popular kendo club member and first year middle school student. Also, a bully, one of the people to first call her Dame-Tsuna and spread the word of her uselessness.

"Hiiieeeh! Mochida-senpai!" she yelled and ran back into the crowd.

"Hey, wait! Dame-Tsuna?!" she heard him exclaim behind her, but she was already gone.

"That was close," she wheezed, dropping to her knees somewhere in the middle of the plaza. "Ahh, he recognised me!"

That was bad. She didn't want to be dame in this world, too! That was the whole point of coming here! Right, she'd have to change her avatar and stay far away from Mochida.

A weird, electronic sound made her look up at the sky.

 **«Warning»**

A big red sign said. And suddenly, the signs multiplied until the entire sky was red.

Tsuna sat frozen in fear, staring up with wide eyes.

The bad feeling she had before had increased thousand fold.

Red liquid, _blood,_ seeped through the red tiles, forming a fleshy _something_ that materialised into a giant figure in a red-and-gold cloak, its face hidden under the hood. Or no, from down below, they could see exactly what was under the hood - nothing. There was no face, it was empty.

"A Game Master?" she heard someone ask. "Why's he hiding his face?"

No. Not a Game Master. That was not a Game Master. This was not a simple announcement. Tsuna wanted to run, but she was paralysed with fear.

The figure raised its arms and all Tsuna wanted to do was hide under a bed. A soft whimper escaped her.

 **"Attention, Players!"** it announced with a deep echoing voice.

 **"Welcome to** _ **my**_ **world. My name is Kayaba Akihiko. I am currently the one and only person who can control this world."**

Tsuna knew that name. She'd read it often enough in her quest to research Sword Art Online. That was the man who had developed both the NerveGear and the game. He'd become a personal hero of hers, the man who she could thank for giving her a world to hide in.

Whispers broke out over the plaza.

 **"I'm sure you've all already noticed that the logout button on the main menu has been removed."** The man's white gloved hand flew through the air, causing a menu to appear. As he said, _there was no logout button._

"No," Tsuna whimpered.

 **"This is by no means a mistake. I repeat, it is not a mistake, but a feature of the true Sword Art Online. You are all unable to log out of SAO and nobody in the real world can remove the NerveGear or interrupt its operation. Should it be attempted, a powerful burst of microwave radiation emitted from a transmitter in the NerveGear will destroy your brain, thus ending your life."**

"No," dropped from Tsuna's mouth. "No no no no no!"

The words went unheard, drowned out by disbelieving shouts and arguments.

 **"Unfortunately, it's entirely possible that a player's friends or family would ignore this warning and attempt to forcibly remove the NerveGear. As proof of this, 213 players have retired from both this world and the real one. As you can see, news of my warning and the numerous victims are being spread worldwide. Thus, the danger of removal attempts has now become minimal."**

Dozens of screens popped up around Kayaba's figure, showing news feeds, reporters, and headlines. By now, Tsuna felt like she was made of ice and a single touch would shatter her.

This was no longer a game. It was a prison.

 **"I hope you will be at ease and focus on completing the game,"** Kayaba said. **"But I'd like you all to keep this in mind: From this point on, all methods of revival will no longer function. Once your HP hits zero, your avatar will perish for eternity, and at that moment… the NerveGear will destroy your brain."**

" _No,_ " Tsuna whispered again.

 **"There is only one condition you must meet to be free: The completion of this game. You are all currently on the first floor, the lowest point in Aincrad. If you conquer a floor's dungeon and defeat the Floor Boss, you may continue to the next floor. Assuming you manage to defeat the final boss on the 100** **th** **floor, the game will be considered cleared."**

Disbelieving shouts sounded all over the plaza, but all Tsuna heard was a buzzing sound in her ears that drowned everything out, except for Kayaba's voice.

 **"Lastly, I've prepared a present for all of you in your item storages,"** the monster that was Kayaba said. **"Take a look."**

All around her, menus popped up as the players obeyed. Tsuna's hand seemed to move by itself as she hit the buttons in her menu.

«Mirror» it said. She tapped on the item and then pressed the «Make into object» button. A moment later, she held a small mirror in her hands. She looked into it - there was her painstakingly created avatar's face.

She looked up when she heard the yells.

All around her, players were suddenly engulfed by light. Yelling broke out all over the plaza as everyone's appearance suddenly changed - they had been forcibly returned to their real appearances, their avatars vanished. Then she was surrounded by light too, all she could see was white.

And when the light was gone, what she saw in the mirror was _her_ face - Dame-Tsuna's. Huge brown eyes, a plain face, a hideous mess of brown hair. The hands holding the mirror were back to being small and weak - her entire body felt smaller.

She was back to being Dame-Tsuna. It was her worst nightmare come true.

 **"Right now, you're probably all wondering 'Why? Why would I, Kayaba Akihiko, the Creator of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear, do such a thing?"** He paused. **"I have already achieved my goal. I created this world solely for my personal enjoyment. And now, the preparations are complete. This concludes the tutorial for official launch of Sword Art Online.**

 **Players, I wish you the best of luck."**

Kayaba's avatar dissolved into red smoke. The red tiles covering the sky disappeared, revealing the evening sky that seemed to mock them with its beauty.

Every player stared up at the sky in shock.

Tsuna's world had just been shattered. All she wanted to do…

Screams broke out all over the plaza.

All she wanted to do…

A fight broke out between two angry and frightened men.

All she wanted to do… was run.

So she did.

This time, no invisible wall threw her back when she charged straight out of the plaza and through the streets. There was a high keening sound in her ears, and it took her a while until she realised it came from her.

"Kaa-chan," she sobbed, tears dripping down her face and shattering into tiny shards once they left her face. "Kaa-chan!"

But there was no Kaa-chan here.

There was only her, the other players, and death.

She ran through the alleys of Starting City for what seemed like hours but couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes. And then she suddenly stood in front of the open city gates and stopped short.

Cities were safe zones. Health wouldn't drop in them.

Outside the city walls, danger lurked. She stumbled back. No, no, she didn't want to _die_! She wanted to see her Kaa-chan again! She wanted, she wanted, she wanted _out_!

But to get out, the game would have to be cleared. People were going to die. Could she really just sit in the city and wait until someone solved the problem for her? It might take months. _Years._

Instinct told her to charge out there, leave the city behind, and fight. To get _free._

"But I don't want to die," she sobbed. "I'm not strong! I'm no good! I'll die!"

Torn between safety and instinct, she stood there, frozen until she heard steps behind her - a boy a few years older than her, with black hair, was running towards the gates. And somehow, _somehow_ , he wasn't scared like she was. He wasn't frozen. He didn't hesitate.

She wanted to be like that.

Tsuna thought he'd just charge straight through the gates. But then he stopped and looked at her.

"If you want to get stronger, head for the next city. The mobs here are going to be gone soon. You can get more XP away from here, if you want to level up," he said.

"I don't know the way," Tsuna whispered numbly.

The boy hesitated for a moment. "Then follow me," he finally said, and then he turned and ran out of the city.

Tsuna took a step after him. Hesitated, drew back. And then, with a scream, she threw herself forward and ran after him, out of the safety of the city and into the unknown.


	3. End of Innocence

Disclaimer: I own neither Katekyo Hitman Reborn nor Sword Art Online.

* * *

Tsuna ran after the boy whose name she didn't even know. But he'd offered her help, and seeing him had made her want to be stronger, and he seemed to know what to do; and Tsuna really needed someone who did, because she was in shock over all that had happened earlier and currently incapable to think for herself. And even if she'd been able to, her plans probably would have gotten her killed within the hour.

In front of her, a wolf like one who had at attacked her only an hour ago - had it really been only an hour? It felt like a lifetime - spawned in front of her guide. Who gave a guttural scream, pulled his sword, and leaped forward, defeating the monster in one blow. Tsuna blinked slowly.

So her companion was strong.

That was good. Right?

Yeah.

It was good.

Another monster spawned to her right.

She wasn't quite aware of how her dagger ended up in her hand. But a moment later, she was charging and her glowing dagger sliced straight into the wolf's throat. With a sound of breaking glass, it shattered into glowing polygons.

Oh.

System assisted sword skills. She'd read about something like that. One only had to fall into position and the game system would automatically move the body for them. Though one would have to have learned the Sword Skill first.

Useful, that.

No tripping mid-fight.

She should really look up what Sword Skills she already had.

Later.

Yeah.

Her companion slowed his pace a little so she could catch up. "Listen, we're going to a village named 'Horunka'. It has an inn, a weapons shop, and a tool shop, and it's a safe zone. It'll be sufficient as a hunting base. We can make it to level 5 throughout today."

Tsuna nodded apathetically, not really registering the words. He knew what to do. He'd get them through alive.

That was enough for her.

"It's a quarter past six right now. If we hunt until morning, we can get enough stats and equipment to head for the next village before other players arrive."

She nodded again.

"Are you alright?" he asked her.

"Yeah," she said, her voice sounding dead. She didn't think she was fooling anybody. "Why are you helping me?"

He looked away. "No reason."

She didn't answer. It didn't matter, anyway. He was here, he knew what to do, she wouldn't die.

They were nearing a dark forest, now. Her guide ran straight in, seemingly knowing what he was doing, and Tsuna took care to trace his steps.

Tsuna and her companion reached the small village consisting of about ten buildings just as the sun went down. There were only NPCs, Non-Player Characters around. No players.

That was good, right. Resources were limited. Other players would take them away, and they wouldn't be able to get stronger and then they would die. Dying was bad.

Her companion headed straight for the weapons shop, where he sold a few items and purchased a brown leather half-coat.

"You should get yourself some better armor, too," he told her.

She nodded, stepped forward, and sold all her items to the NPC behind the counter. Then she examined the selection. She didn't have that much money, not after buying the Recovery Potion earlier. But it was enough for dark blue cloak, which she equipped.

"I've got a Recovery Potion," she offered mechanically. "I should use it before we go, shouldn't I?"

"Aa," he said. Then he swiped his hand and his menu appeared. A few buttons pressed later, and a screen popped up in front of her.

«Invite»  
«Do you accept the party invite?»

She pressed the «Yes» button. In the upper left corner of her vision, where only her own Health Bar had hovered before, a second smaller one appeared.

"Kirito," she whispered his name.

"Natsu," he replied, then frowned. "You should use that potion now."

She did.

They left the shop. Tsuna caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror. Brown messy hair sticking up in all directions. Too wide eyes that seemed dead inside. Small figure swathed in blue fabric. She looked traumatized.

Didn't matter.

She followed Kirito into the next shop, where he bought a few recovery and antidote potions, two of each he handed her. After that they headed off. Not for the forest, though. Kirito instead entered a private house.

Tsuna wondered if she should apologise for entering without knocking as an NPC, a portly woman, offered them both a glass of water.

NPCs were just a mass of data. They weren't real. They only looked like people.

But they _weren't._

They drank their water. In the background, a child's coughing sounded, and then suddenly, a golden question mark appeared above the NPC-lady's head. Kirito leaned down to Tsuna. "That's the sign of a quest activation," he told her. Then, straightening, he said clearly, "Is something troubling you?"

Tsuna listened as the NPC-lady told them about her daughter's disease that could only be overcome by making medicine out of a dangerous predatory plant's ovule, which were to be found in the forest. If only a swordsman were to fetch some for her… she'd even hand over a sword in gratitude.

Tsuna felt something stir in her chest as she heard the daughter cough in the background again.

Kirito got up, so she did, too. "Please leave it to us!" he called out as he rushed out of the house, Tsuna in tow.

As they hurried through the village, a bell chimed. The in-game-clock told Tsuna that it was seven now.

It had only been an hour since her world had come crumbling down.

Would her Mama have noticed by now what was going on? Would she have noticed the warnings given to the public? Or would her somewhat oblivious mother unsuspectingly attempt to remove the helmet from Tsuna's head, thus killing her own daughter?

Would dying hurt?

A memory of her mother telling her, "I just want you to be able to say, 'It's great to be alive!'" came to her mind.

She'd never been able to say that. Her life was fine, but it wasn't great. The only time she'd ever really put effort in something was when she studied to get this game. She had nothing she really enjoyed. Gaming was okay, but ultimately, it was just an escape. Just like SAO was supposed to have been.

Instead, it was now hell. And Tsuna was most likely going to die, without ever having felt good about her life.

"Listen, this is actually more of an individual-only quest, meaning there's only one item we need to get, and one item as reward, the «Anneal Blade». We'll both get the XP and money, but only one of us can get the sword," Kirito told her hesitantly.

"Okay," Tsuna said mechanically. "You can have the sword."

"Alright," her companion answered. "Have you filled your skill slots already?"

Tsuna nodded mechanically. "Only one, with «One Handed Dagger». The other one is still empty."

Her companion nodded. "This is your first NerveGear game, isn't it?"

She only nodded.

"Alright. There's only two of us. We'll need to be careful. I'm normally a solo player, I don't have much experience in teaming up with others."

"Were you a beta tester?" she asked, then started, surprised at her own question.

Kirito hesitated. "…yes."

"Good," she only answered.

That was good. He knew this game.

She didn't want to die.

Kirito was oblivious to her thoughts. "The skills most important for solo players are «Searching» and «Hiding». Both make hunting and surviving easier. I think we both should both chose «Searching» for now."

"Okay," Tsuna answered mechanically, and added the searching skill to her skill slots. Her vision suddenly improved, and a red cursor appeared a little ways away.

"Red cursors indicate monsters. The shade indicates the strength of it. If it's a dark crimson, the gap in power is too high for you to defeat. Lighter, pink shades on the other hand are too weak and hardly give you any XP."

"Okay," Tsuna repeated.

The cursor she saw was a normal red, with a shade of magenta. Did that mean that it was weaker than average, or stronger?

The monster appeared. It was a walking plant, larger than Tsuna. Above it, the name «Little Nepent» hovered.

Tsuna froze. The thing was moving on countless roots. Vines, with pointed leaves attached, wriggled at its side. On a head-like thing, a giant maw snapped open and shut, dripping liquid everywhere.

Suddenly, the possibility of death seemed all too real. Fear rose up in Tsuna, and her previous apathy shattered all at once.

Her legs felt weak. She tried pulling her dagger and fumbled it, nearly dropping the weapon.

Oh kami, she was going to die.

Kirito pulled his sword from his back and charged. With a howl, the plant shot its right vine at him, but Kirito dodged it and with a quick turn, thrust his sword into the plant's stalk. It roared in anger and it's head suddenly inflated. Then it suddenly spit green liquid at Kirito, but he had already thrown himself to the left and the fluid only hit earth. White vapor rose up where it hit.

 _Acid,_ a distant part of Tsuna's shocked mind supplied. _Poison._

The plant screamed and bent backwards, a yellow light around it. Kirito lunged forward with a violent scream and his sword sliced through the air twice. The Health Bar of the monster sank and sank, and turned red, and then it was gone and the plant shattered.

The battle hadn't taken more than a minute. Tsuna still stood there, wide-eyed and shaking.

"Natsu," Kirito said. She didn't reply. "Natsu!"

"Y-yes!" she answered, snapping to attention.

"Do you want to go back to the village?" he asked gently.

She shook her head wildly. "N-no! I just, it's just. I don't think I can fight like that," she blurted. "I'm not strong, I'm not smart, I'm a complete loser, I have no idea what I'm doing, but I do want to improve. I, I want to go back to the real world. I'm, I want to get b-better. And you helped me, so I want to help you in return, even if I'm completely useless-"

Kirito held up his hand and she shut up. "We didn't get the item from this plant. We have to hunt more, before other players come."

As if on cue, several more Nepent cursors rose up around them. Tsuna swallowed.

"You could still run," Kirito told her. "You'd be safe back at the village. You could stay there, learn a craft, and sell items. You wouldn't have to fight."

It was tempting. So tempting. Tsuna bit her lip, warring with herself. Her mind screamed at her to get away, save herself, to stay alive. But there was a part of her that screamed at her to stand her ground, to _fight_.

The first plant monster stepped into view, followed by a second. Kirito turned away from her and threw himself at the monsters. Tsuna watched, her knees still shaking.

 _Come on,_ she screamed at herself. _Move! Run! You're going to die!_

A plant screamed and thrust a vine spiked with dangerously pointed leaves at Kirito. And suddenly, Tsuna could move. With a yell, she lunged forward with her dagger glowing, and hit the plant monster's vine. It separated from the plant's body and shattered. And from then, Tsuna's world narrowed down to her, the Nepents, and Kirito at her back. Everything became a haze of slashing and slicing, lunging and dodging. There seemed to be no end to the plant monsters. Not even the sound of a little fanfare and golden light suddenly enveloping her could deter her, and she only noticed that her level had risen to Level 2 when there suddenly were no plants anymore.

Beside her, Kirito, he too having leveled up, stood. Both of them were breathing hard. "Good job," Tsuna's companion finally breathed out.

"Hiieeehhh," Tsuna whimpered. "You too?"

"Did you get the item?" he asked her. Tsuna shook her head. "The «Little Nepent's Ovule» we're looking for is dropped by a Nepent with a flower growing on its head, we need to find one of those. But there are also trap Nepents, they have a round fruit attached to them, a seed - if the seed is damaged, it'll break open and every Nepent in the vicinity will appear and try to slaughter us."

Tsuna nodded faintly, feeling sick. "Okay," she said.

Her ally swiped his hand down to open his menu. "We should distribute our stat points. We got three when we leveled up."

Tsuna nodded and opened her menu to evaluate her stats. Only Strength and Agility were visible. She bit her lip, thinking hard. Then she distributed two points to Agility and one to Strength, deciding that she'd rather be able to dodge and evade than kill monsters.

Behind them, clapping suddenly sounded. Both of them turned around sharply in anticipation of another fight. But behind them wasn't another monster. It was a player, a man that seemed slightly older than Kirito.

"S-sorry for startling you," he said. "I should have called out first."

"No, I overreacted," Kirito answered awkwardly. Tsuna said nothing and shifted a step back. Something about that player… was off.

"C-congrats on your level up. That was really quick," the stranger said, but Kirito shook his head.

"It's not that fast… and if you're saying that, than you're fast, too. I didn't think any players would come to this forest for another three hours," Kirito replied.

"Ahaha," the stranger laughed awkwardly. "I thought I would be the first one here. The way to Horunka is pretty confusing, after all."

Kirito's eyes widened a little. Tsuna frowned. That sentence, did it mean something? Wait, if the other guy had known the way here… was he like Kirito? A beta tester?

"Are you doing the «Secret Medicine of the Forest» Quest, too?" the stranger asked. Kirito nodded, which made the stranger grin and do a weird gesture - like he was pushing up glasses on his nose, except he wasn't wearing any. "It's an indispensable quest for one-armed sword users, after all. The «Anneal Blade» that can be won can be used up till the third floor."

"The appearance leaves something to be desired, though," Kirito commented, to which the other boy let out another laugh.

Tsuna felt completely out of the loop and said nothing. She didn't see anything funny about the situation at all. And the other boy… gave her the creeps.

"How about working together on the quest?" the stranger asked.

"Eh... I do believe that was an individual-only quest though," Kirito said in confusion, but the other only smiled.

"That's true, but the chance of finding a Nepent with the item will increase if the normal ones are hunted down as much as possible. It would be easier to do as a pair," the boy said, then corrected himself when he remembered Tsuna. "Trio, I mean."

Kirito seemed hesitant, which was a relief to Tsuna. Something about that boy… she frowned. She couldn't put her finger on it.

Then again, so far her instinct had landed her in a dark forest, hunted by poison-spitting plant monsters.

The stranger seemed to interpret Kirito's hesitation in his own way. "No, it's fine, you don't have to feel any obligation to form a party. You are the first one who got here, so of course, I'll concede the first key item to you. If we continue hunting at that boosted rate, the second will definitely drop soon, so if you can stick with me till then..."

"Ahh… that's right…" Kirito replied, taken a little off guard. "Okay."

Tsuna frowned as the other boy laughed again and shook Kirito's hand. "That's good to hear, I'll be in your care than. My name is Coper."

"Kirito," Tsuna's party member replied, to which the boy named Coper tilted his head.

"Kirito… eh, just where did I…" he murmured.

"It was probably someone else," Kirito said. "Come on, let's go hunting. We have two items to find."

"Y-yeah, let's go." The two boy nodded to each other. Tsuna wanted to say something, too, but she didn't know what, and Kirito and Coper seemed so knowledgeable that anything she said would have sounded stupid.

And there was no time to say anything more, because another group of Little Nepents had appeared and their only choice was to fight.

 **▬▬ι═══════ﺤ**

It had been over an hour since they had teamed up with Coper. Tsuna had lost count of how many Nepents had shattered under her dagger and, occasionally, her fists.

From the corner of her eye, she saw another of the plant monsters prepare to spit its poison at Kirito from behind. With a yell, she threw herself at it.

"Thanks," Kirito murmured when they were both done with their respective opponents.

"Yeah," she answered, letting herself fall on her rear in exhaustion. Kirito joined her on the ground and they both watched Coper shatter the last of the plant monsters. "Listen," Tsuna said. "About Coper…"

"It's odd, isn't it?" Kirito murmured. "We didn't even talk about the fact that if we die in the game, we…"

 _Die for real,_ he left the sentence unfinished.

That wasn't what Tsuna had wanted to say. "Something about him…" she muttered. "I don't know. I don't trust him."

"Why?" Kirito asked her, startling Tsuna a bit.

For some reason, she had expected him to laugh at her. No one ever took her seriously, after all.

"I, I don't know," she hedged. "It's just, I can't put my finger on it."

Kirito frowned and looked at Coper who was now striding over to them. "It still hasn't come out," the boy in question called out. "The Nepent with the flower, I mean."

"Maybe they changed the appearance rate," Kirito offered. "It wouldn't be the first time an MMO had lowered the rate of rare drops with the start of official service."

"True enough… at least we did level up considerably. Though my weapon's durability has dropped… maybe we should go back to town…" Coper answered.

But just as he said that, faint red light appeared under a tree. By now, Tsuna knew that this meant that another monster was spawning. The cursor above it was no longer magenta, but red, as it had been since she had reached Level 3.

Moments later, another Nepent shuffled on its path, and on its top, in a toxic red colour, a large fleshy looking flower grew.

Kirito and Coper looked at each other. Then, with a muted war cry, they lunged at the plant monster, the one that finally had the item that they had been looking for. But then, Kirito suddenly froze and drew Coper to a halt, glaring at something hidden in the trees. Tsuna had to strain her eyes, but with her searching skill, she could just faintly make out the outline of another Nepent, one that had a large lump growing on its head, a lump that didn't look at all like a flower.

Slowly, Tsuna got up from the ground, dagger in her hand.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that the hidden Nepent was the kind with a trap on its head - the kind that if destroyed would bring a swarm of rampaging monsters upon them. And that wasn't the worst: The flower on the other Nepent's head was slowly losing its petals, a seed slowly growing.

It they hesitated too long, they'd have two trap-Nepents on their hands, the rare item would be gone.

Tsuna had a bad feeling about this.

"Just what should we do…" Kirito murmured.

"Let's leave," Tsuna said anxiously. "We can find another, this is too dangerous. If we die…"

"No," Coper spoke up. "Let's go. I'll draw the trapped one's attention, you get the one with the flower."

And without waiting for their assent, he stepped forward.

"…Got it," Kirito said.

Tsuna's bad feeling increased. "No, we need to run," she whispered. "Kirito…"

He gave her a forced smile. "It'll be fine, Natsu."

The Nepent with the flower on its head noticed Coper's approach first. It hissed at him, even as Coper headed for the other Nepent. Kirito didn't hesitate at all and threw himself at the other plant monster. That fight was over in seconds, Kirito dodging and countering the monster's attacks like he had done it all his life. It's HP fell and fell, and then the monster shattered, it left behind the flower that had grown on its head. It tumbled onto the ground and turned into a shining ball, which Kirito picked up and dropped into the pouch on his belt.

Tsuna ran forward. "We've got it, Coper, so let's leave!" she called out.

"I'll go back him up," her companion said, taking a few steps in the direction where Coper was skilfully fending off the trap-Nepent. "I have more experience, so you stay here-"

He froze. Tsuna froze too, as her body broke into shivers.

Coper was fending of the attacks the plant monster threw at him, even while facing their way. And he was staring at Kirito with such distrust in his eyes… "Sorry, Kirito," he said. And then he turned and lifted his blue-glowing sword high above his head.

"No…" Kirito whispered numbly, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "That's bad, isn't it…"

Coper's sword slashed downwards and hit the trap-seed on the Nepent with the sound of an explosion. Tsuna's knees buckled in horror as she saw green fumes explode from the destroyed seed.

No. Nonononono.

"Wh-why?" Kirito forced out.

Coper didn't even look at them when he said, "Sorry."

All around them, to the left and the right, in front of them and behind, red cursors appeared. There had to be at least twenty, maybe thirty. Tsuna gasped in terror, there was no escape for them.

"Is this, is he, why did he do that?" she whispered. "He's going to die, too, he had to know that-"

But she saw Coper running for the bushes, intent on hiding himself.

Hiding.

"«Hiding» skill," she breathed in horrified realisation.

Coper had lured them into a trap. He was going to hide while Kirito and her were going to be slaughtered, and later he was going to pick up their items and complete the quest.

Coper was trying to murder them.

"It's futile…" Kirito next to her breathed. Tsuna grabbed for his hand, too terrified to cry. Kirito's fingers squeezed hers in comfort, or maybe to comfort himself, she didn't know. "Coper, you didn't know about it, did you?" he whispered. "«Hiding» isn't effective against monsters that don't rely on sight. For example, monsters like «Little Nepents». They don't have eyes."

 _Ahh,_ she thought faintly. _So that's why he said we should both pick «Searching»._

The rampaging Nepents were drawing closer. A cluster of them was heading for the bushes Coper had disappeared into.

He was going to die.

She was going to die.

Kirito turned around, away from the sight of the plant monsters converging on Coper's hiding place. He looked calm as he face the monsters in front of them. "Sorry, Natsu," he said softly. "I dragged you into something dangerous."

"No," she whispered. "You have nothing to be sorry for."

Kirito was going to die.

No.

 _No!_

Her hand clenched around her dagger.

Next to her, Kirito lunged forward, threw himself at the monsters. Swung his sword with such power and precision that any monster shattered with one blow.

Tsuna's vision narrowed. Fire was flowing through her veins.

She regretted not being strong enough to protect her ally. She regretted not trying harder. She regretted not fighting to live.

 _If I am to die,_ she thought. _Then I will do one thing._

 _I will fight to protect my friend with my dying will._

Tsuna threw herself forward, dagger brandished. She lost all her logical thinking. The only thing that mattered was slaughtering the enemies and protecting Kirito at her side. They fought back to back, vines attacking them from all sides, poison being spat at them. Their Health Bars steadily sunk, cold seeping into her fiery body. But still they kept fighting.

At her back, she heard Kirito howl a cry of war, and she howled back her answer as her fist shattered another Nepent.

And then there was the sound of shattering glass behind her, and cold passed over her, because that was the sound of something dying, but it was not the sound of a _monster_ dying.

Coper.

Coper was dead.

Almost as if in reflex, her dagger stabbed into one of the last two plant monsters. The other shattered under Kirito's sword.

As one, they turned around, sword and dagger held out before them, as the Nepents that had killed Coper stalked over to them. One of them even had a flower on its head.

With twin war cries, she and Kirito threw themselves at their enemies, fury heating their veins.

Later, after the battle was won, the two of them would place one of the ovule's over the spot that Coper had died in. Then they would drag themselves back to the village, deliver the item to the NPC and thus, complete the quest. Kirito would receive the «Anneal Blade» and both of them would reach Level 4. They would watch as the NPC made the medicine and deliver it to her NPC daughter, who would then be healthy again.

Later, they would break down.

But at this moment, all that mattered was fighting.


	4. That first month

Tsuna and Kirito woke early the next morning, after only a few hours of sleep. They were both on the ground in the room where the sick NPC-girl had been resting, and later, recovering.

Now she was coughing again, as if what they had accomplished the previous day, like Coper's death, had never happened. Like everything had been meaningless.

"Let's go," Kirito finally said. Tsuna nodded numbly and followed him out.

In the village there were now players running about. Some of them were complaining about the lack of monsters that made leveling up much harder.

Tsuna didn't feel guilty. Maybe those people would live longer if all the monsters were gone.

She followed Kirito back into the stores to restock on potions. They went to the weapons store, too.

"You should get a better dagger," Kirito recommended. "Yours probably doesn't have much durability left."

"Okay," she mumbled and did as he said. "Where are we going next?"

"What do you mean, 'we'?" Kirito asked, surprised.

Tsuna looked at him unsurely. "I just thought… I mean if you don't want me stay, I'd understand, I'm pretty useless and I have no clue about this game and I'm not very smart-"

"No!" Kirito exclaimed. Then he took a breath. "I thought you wouldn't want to stay with me after what happened yesterday."

"Oh. Sorry," Tsuna answered awkwardly. "That's… I want to stay. With you. If it's okay."

Kirito gave her slight smile. "Alright, Natsu. Let's stay together."

Tsuna actually managed to smile when he said that.

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

They were on their way ten minutes later. Kirito explained to her that they could have hunted Great Nepents in the forest, but with more players arriving, he thought that it was best to move on.

" _Great_ Nepents?" Tsuna asked in dismay. "Hiieee…"

"Hey." Kirito poked her shoulder, smiling a little when Tsuna jumped. "You did fine yesterday. To be honest, I was surprised. I didn't think you could fight like that."

"Hahaha," Tsuna laughed weakly. "Me neither. I guess, when I saw you fight… it made me want to fight, too."

No way was she going to say that she had actually only wanted to protect him because she saw him as a friend. He'd probably run away if she told him that, because who would want to be _Dame-Tsuna's_ friend?

"You shouldn't always say that you aren't strong or that you're useless," Kirito suddenly said. "Strength here… it's only numbers. Data. An illusion. And yesterday, I'd probably have died without you. So you aren't useless."

Tsuna stopped walking and stared at him, lips parted in disbelief. It took him a second to notice that she wasn't next to him anymore. "Huh? Natsu?" he asked, turning back to look at her. "What's wrong?"

It was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her. That was what was wrong.

She suddenly shook her head and slapped her own cheeks. "Nothing! Nothing at all!" She hastily took a few steps forward until she was next to him again. "Let's go! We've got to hurry, right?"

Kirito gave her an odd look. "Right. We should make it to Level 6 by evening."

They did. They gained XP by slaying the monsters attacking them on the way to the next town, and under Kirito's guidance, cleared another hunting ground. They didn't talk much in between, Tsuna was too shy to say anything, and Kirito wasn't a talkative person. Plus, the events of the previous day were weighing down on them. There was also the fact that they'd overheard a group of players in Horunka talking about a player who hadn't believed in Kayaba's words and had jumped off the edge of the floating island to prove that dying in the game wouldn't kill him. Later, it had been discovered that his name had been crossed out on what was now called the Monument of Life, as large stone tablet in the Town of Beginnings that had all names of the players on it.

No one knew wether that first deceased player had woken up in the real world.

Tsuna wondered if Coper's name was now crossed out on the memorial, too. She, for her part, was sure that he was gone forever, dead. He would never wake again. She didn't know _how_ she knew that. It was just a feeling.

Their silence was broken though upon reaching Level 6. The reason for that was that at that level, players gained a third skill slot. And while filling said empty slot with the «Hiding» skill as recommended by Kirito, she noticed something puzzling.

"Err, Kirito-san?" Tsuna asked. "What's «Hypersense»?"

"An Outside System Skill," Kirito answered distractedly, flipping through his menu. "You know, an ability, that either involves unconventional use of system-controlled skills, the exploitation of loopholes in the system, or the use of the player's human abilities to enhance their gameplay. They aren't regulated by the system... «Hypersense» is extremely hard to obtain, as far as I know, only one player achieved it through a serious of very improbable coincidences. It allows a player to sense other player's presences before seeing or hearing them. Why do you ask?"

Inwawardly freaking out, Tsuna answered, "I have it."

Kirito's head snapped up. "What?"

Tsuna gestured at her menu. "Look."

"Indeed," Kirito murmured frowning.

"But how?" Tsuna whimpered. "I didn't even do anything! I mean, not anything different from you! Do you have it?"

"No," her companion answered, still frowning. Then he shrugged. "Well, good for you, I suppose." He gave her a smile. "Stop freaking out. It's a good thing."

She gestured wildly. "But it doesn't make sense!"

Kirito shrugged again. "We'll figure it out. Don't worry."

"Hieeh..." Tsuna whined in dismay.

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

They were on the way to another hunting ground when they took a break. According to Kirito, the place they were in should be safe from monsters.

Tsuna looked around. The scenery was lovely. The sun shone, the temperature was perfect, birds chirped. Large butterflies sat on beautiful flowers. In the sky, reptiles flew gracefully, and if Tsuna hadn't been looking closely, she'd have thought them to be birds.

It was hard to believe that none of it was real.

She sighed softly as she bit into her bread. Dry like this, it didn't taste that good. She missed Kaa-chan's cooking. She missed Kaa-chan, period. They had never been separated before.

When she was done eating, she checked her inventory. There wasn't much in it, she'd have to stock up in the next city. She was running low on potions and crystals, and she could use new shoes and perhaps a new weapon. The problem was money, she did have some, but good equipment was expensive. Hm, maybe she could sell some stuff... she did have some meat the monsters had dropped. And... there was that mirror.

With a frown, she pulled it out of her inventory to inspect it. It was undamaged. But she didn't know if it was sellable. Well, couldn't hurt to try.

A look into at her reflection made her sigh dejectedly. Her appearance was the same as it was in the real world, which meant that her hair looked awful. A mess of tanlgled brown, unevenly cut, and of dubious cleanness. She grimaced.

"You know, it might be possible to change hairstyles," Kirito said, correctly guessing her thoughts.

"R-really?" she asked hopefully. "I thought we were stuck with our real-life appearances."

He shrugged a bit uncomfortably. "But in real life, you could change your hair, too. It might be possible."

"Uhm... how do I do that?" she asked.

Three minutes later, her hair was clean and made up of soft-looking spikes. It didn't look like what her avatar's hair had looked like when she made it, but it wasn't too far off, except for the colour. Maybe she could get hair-dye somewhere... did hair-dye exist in this world?

"Thanks, Kirito-san," she mumbled gratefully.

"Just Kirito is fine," he said back with a slight smile. "It's not even my real name after all. No honorifics needed."

Tsuna blushed. "Okay, K-Kirito."

"Hey, can I ask you something?" he asked her.

She felt near-panic at the question. Tsuna wasn't exactly the brightest. Okay, let's be honest, she was pretty stupid. She even had problems with elementary maths questions. Would Kirito laugh at her if she couldn't answer? Would he think she was stupid? Oh no, he probably knew that already, he was really smart after all-

"How old are you?" Kirito asked.

"Eleven!" she blurted out in sheer relief at being able to answer, and then cringed at her own behaviour.

"So young..." he murmured mostly to himself.

For a few minutes, they were both silent.

"W-why do you think he did it?" Tsuna asked timidly. "Kayaba, I mean."

Kirito stared in the distance. "I don't know, Natsu. I'm sorry."

"Tsuna," she said. "Sawada Tsunayoshi."

He blinked at her in shock. She cringed. "I just thought... if I don't make it-" her voice broke a little. "I'd like someone to know that- that I was here. That I wasn't no-good for a little bit."

He reached out. She gasped in surprise when his hand settled on her head. "Hey," he said seriously, but there was a smile on his face. "Don't say that. I won't let you die so easily. And I don't think you're no-good at all."

She laughed shortly. "You haven't seen me in the real world."

"I don't need to," Kirito answered. "I know you are kind and brave. Here or there, it doesn't make any difference."

Tsuna blinked at him stupidly while he got up. "Come on, Natsu, we have a lot of ground to cover today."

"Y-Yeah!" she jumped up and almost fell over in her haste. "Right!"

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

Kirito and Tsuna did not fall into a routine during the following month. Too unpredictable and dangerous was the game to allow for such a thing. If possible, they would hunt monsters and do quests during daytime and stay in villages at night, but quests had varying durations, and sometimes they got stuck out in hunting grounds, so setting a schedule was impossible. Another point was that Kirito was fully intent on levelling up as fast as possible and thus decided that they had to make the most of their time, so they slept when they could, and hunted at any other time. Breaks were far and few between, and Tsuna couldn't really enjoy them, because Kirito had figured out that she was a lousy student in school and decided to tutor her.

 _"Because you wouldn't want to have missed too much school once we get out, right?"_ he'd asked her, and she had been unable to tell him how completely hopeless she was.

If it weren't so embarrassing to have Kirito see just how _utterly_ bad she was at studying, she'd have been happy to have someone give her that much attention for the first time. Kirito wasn't like anyone she had ever met - he was kind, sometimes awkward, really smart but never smug about it, strong which sometimes made him overconfident, but most of all, he never made her feel stupid. He encouraged her and believed in her. So she did her best and felt awful when she failed at something. Then again, she did feel on top of the world when she got something right and he praised her.

Not surprisingly, given how busy they were, time passed quickly in Aincrad. It was after a month that Kirito heard about a strategy meeting in the city of Tolbana, the city closest to the labyrinth.

"They're going to come up with a plan to defeat the First Floor Boss," Kirito told her. Tsuna swallowed. She'd gotten a little better, but monsters still scared her to death. And to think, a Floor Boss... _hiieee._

"Are we going?" she asked quietly.

"I am." He gave her a concerned look. "You don't have to. You're only eleven."

She shook her head. "I want to go."

"Are you sure?"

She nodded, swallowing. "I'm scared, though."

He ruffled her hair. "Me too. Don't let it control you."

Tsuna sniffed a little. "I know."

"Good. It should be fine, though. You never freeze up in fights." Kirito gave her a cheeky grin. "Little Natsu is growing up!"

Tsuna sputtered. "You-!"

Kirito laughed, and after a moment Tsuna joined in. Her laughter petered off after a moment, though.

"What's wrong?" the only friend she'd ever had asked.

"It's been a month," she said softly. "And we haven't even advanced one of the hundred floors."

"It's going to take years," Kirito agreed, growing serious.

"I miss kaa-chan," Tsuna whispered, hugging her legs. "But there are days when I hardly think about her."

Kirito tentatively put his arm around her shoulders. "We're busy a lot."

"Yeah," she mumbled.

"You'll see her again," Kirito said.

"She makes the best cookies. And she gives great hugs. She's the nicest person in the whole world."

"You'll have to introduce us when we get out of here," Kirito said and squeezed her shoulder. "Now come on. We might get you to Level 12 before the meeting tomorrow."

 **▬▬ι═══════ﺤ**

 **December 2nd, 2022**

It had been a month since Sword Art Online had been launched. Of the ten thousand people trapped within the game, two thousand had died. That meant that of every five people, one was gone. Tsuna only felt numbness thinking about it. She could easily have been one of them, but she wasn't. She, Dame-Tsuna, had survived.

16 o'clock found Kirito and Tsuna at the coliseum in the city of Tolbana. Around thirty other players were already there when they arrived. Tsuna was by far the youngest, she noticed when she looked around. Her gaze caught on one player in particular.

Mochida Kensuke. He was with another group of players, none of which she recognised.

So he'd lived, too. She was still surprised that he was in Aincrad at all.

"Do you know him?" Kirito asked her quietly.

She shrugged and turned away from Mochida. "He's from my neighbourhood. We aren't friends, though." Tsuna didn't say anything more than that. Kirito didn't ask, either.

"Listen up!" a man down in the arena yelled enthusiastically. He had blue hair, wore bronze armour, and carried a longsword. "I'll be starting the conference now! Thank you everyone, for responding to my invitation! My name is Diavel, and my class is Knight!"

Laughter wafted up from his audience. "There's no class system in SAO!" someone yelled.

"Is this meeting a joke?" another demanded.

The man, Diavel, suddenly grew serious. "Today, on the highest level of this floor, my party discovered the Boss Room! By defeating it and advancing to the Second Floor, we'll be able to show everyone in the game that this Death Game _can_ be cleared! It's our responsibilty to fight. Don't you agree, everyone?"

The players started murmuring amonst themselves. Some applauded after a few moments. Tsuna and Kirito stayed silent, watching.

"Okay! Now, I'd like to begin discussing our battle strategy," Diavel announced. "For starters, we're going to split into parties of six!"

Kirito choked a bit. Tsuna fell off her seat. They'd have to add people to their team?!

Below, Diavel continued talking. "The Boss can't be defeated with small parties. We'll need multiple parties to form a raid group!..."

All around, players started teaming up. Tsuna looked around wildly. "We're going to be fine with just us, right, Kirito?" she squeaked out from her place on the ground.

"Yeah..." Kirito said strainedly. Then his eyes locked on something. Tsuna followed his gaze to a player sitting by themself, a hood obscuring their face. They weren't making any move to party with anyone. "Natsu, do you mind-"

"Hiiie! You go ask!" she yelped. "I'll just wait here!"

She may have gotten a bit better with her fear of monsters, but no way was she going to talk to a stranger. What if she tripped? What if they laughed at her? What if she said something stupid? What if she got yelled at?

Kirito sighed and walked over to the stranger. Tsuna watched them talk and then saw Kirito open his menu to invite the player. A moment later, a new HP bar with the name 'Asuna' next to it appeared right under hers and Kirito's in Tsuna's vision.

"Natsu!" Kirito called her over.

"Hieek!" she squeaked and scrambled over to them, _almost_ tripping over her own feet. Kirito steadied her with the ease of practice. "H-H-Hi!" Tsuna stuttered to the player named Asuna. She got a silent nod in return.

"Alright!" Diavel shouted. "Are you all done partying?"

Tsuna hastily sat down on Kirito's other side.

"Hold it!" a rough voice shouted behind her. Tsuna nearly fell out of her seat, thinking she was being yelled at. It wasn't the case, however. A short, stocky man jumped down into the arena next to Diavel.

"What's going on?" Tsuna whispered to Kirito.

"No idea," he murmured back with a worried frown.

"The name's Kibaou!" the newcomer said. Tsuna decided she didn't like him. He reminded her of the bullies that tormented her back in the real world. "There's something I need to get off my chest!" the newly named Kibaou continued. "I'm positive that some of you should apologise to those that have died so far!"

Tsuna gasped in shock. "What's he saying!" she whispered to Kirito, who was gritting his teeth.

"Kibaou-san, you're referring to the beta testers, correct?" Diavel asked. Tsuna gasped again as Kibaou shouted,

"Of course I am! On the day that this crappy game started, the beta testers disappeared, abandoning all of us beginners! They monopolised the good hunting grounds and the profitable quests for their own gain! And afterwards, they feigned ignorance!"

Tsuna felt sick to her stomach as the man clenched his fists and yelled, "Some of you are sure to be beta testers! We should have them kneel in apology and hand over the money and items they've been hording! I cannot and _will_ not entrust my life to those people!"

Tsuna was just about to stumble down and hand over all she had ( _Kami. She had been doing all that. It was all her fault, and now everyone hated her! Tust like in school, and she wasn't even a beta tester_ ) but a small noise from Kirito stopped her. Her friend was clenching his fists and squeezing his eyes shut, an anguished grimace on his face.

That was right. Kirito had been a beta tester. That man was saying Kirito should kneel and apologise! But Kirito was a good person, he'd been so nice to her and he'd helped her, and now that Kibaou was making him feel bad! It wasn't like they had had it easy either! Coper's death still featured in her nightmares. It wasn't- it wasn't their fault!

"Mind if I speak?" a deep voice asked down below. Kirito's eyes snapped open at the words, looking down with trepidation. Tsuna scooted a bit closer to him, tentatively squeezing his arm.

"You're my friend, Kirito," she whispered. "Don't listen to that guy."

A bit of the strain disappeared from Kirito's face. "Thanks," he murmured back.

Down below, a large, dark-skinned man walked into the arena. He towered over Kibaou. "Kibaou-san, basically you're saying that the beta testers should take responsibility for the many deaths by apologising and offering reparations to us newer players, right?"

"Y-yeah!" Kibaou bellowed.

The big guy pulled out a notebook from his pocket. Tsuna was familiar with it, Kirito had made her read it from cover to cover. "This is the guidebook, I believe you have one, too," the big guy said."It's up for free at the item shop, after all."

"What about it?!" Kibaou demanded.

"The people who distributed these... were former beta testers."

Shocked gasps sounded all around. Tsuna was just glad that the big man seemed to be on their side.

"Listen, this information is available for everyone," said man said, turning away from Kibaou to face the audience. "Yet many players died. What I thought we'd be doing here was planning how to defeat the boss using what we learned from those deaths." Approving murmurs sounded this time from the watching players. The large man gave a pointed look to Kibaou, who huffed and stalked away. Tsuna breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay!" Diavel called out once everyone was seated again. "May I continue?"

No one had any objections.

* * *

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ


	5. Illfang the Kobold Lord

**December 2nd, 2022**

The evening after the meeting found Tsuna trudging through the streets of Tolbana by herself. She and Kirito had rented a room in an inn and he had then gone out to a more informal meeting of the raiding party Diavel had organised so that the fighters could get to know each other better. Tsuna had opted out so she could visit the item and weapon shops. She had some money left, and had decided to buy herself better armour.

It was as she was leaving the shop that she ran into a purple-haired girl, tripped, and impressively landed on her face, to the laughter of some nearby players.

Classic Dame-Tsuna, really.

"U-uhm..." the girl said. She wasn't much taller than Tsuna herself, and looked even more timid, with her purple hair covering a part of her face, including one eye. "S-sorry, I w-wasn't watching-"

"Haha," Tsuna laughed weakly. "Me neither. Sorry."

"D-do you need a healing potion?" the girl answered anxiously.

"No, no, I'm not hurt," Tsuna hastily. "I mean, uhm, I trip all the time, so, you don't have to be sorry, uhh... and cities are safe zones, so..."

"I-I always get o-overlooked, so..." the girl mumbled. "I-I'm used to b-being tripped over..."

"Sorry!" Tsuna yelped.

"I-I'm Nagi!" the girl said quickly. "Naginebbia, I mean!"

"Natsu!" Tsuna answered. "I mean, that's my n-name! N-nice to meet you!"

Awkward silence followed.

"Hieeeh..." escaped from Tsuna's mouth. She snapped it shut almost immediately.

"Uhh... c-can you h-help me pick out new a-armour?" Nagi asked. "I-I mean, you don't have to, I just nnever know what to p-pick and..."

"Yeah, of course!" Tsuna exclaimed, relieved that she had something she could do. "I just picked my own for the raid tomorrow, I can help!"

"Raid?" Nagi asked with a confused frown.

"Yeah, someone found the Boss Room, so there was a strategy conference today about how to defeat it," Tsuna rambled. "So I had to get some good gear and stuff, and potions, and my dagger got an upgrade-"

Nagi shuffled awkwardly. "I d-didn't know about a conference," she mumbled, then looked up at Tsuna. "Uhm... do you t-think I could join the raid, Natsu-san?"

"Hah?" Tsuna blurted dumbly, and Nagi folded into herself.

"I-I mean, I d-don't want to stay in this game forever, and people are d-dying," Nagi said shakily, "S-so if I have to fight, I will."

Tsuna's fingers moved almost by themselves as she sent Nagi the party invite.

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

Kirito came back late that evening. Tsuna and Nagi were now both at the inn, where Tsuna explained to Nagi how the raid would work.

"The boss is called «Illfang the Kobold Lord», and he's got these «Ruin Kobold Sentinels» guarding him," she said. "He's got four Health Bars, and when the last one is down to a quarter, he switches weapons. To a, uhh-"

" _Talwar,_ " Kirito said from the door. Both Nagi and Tsuna jumped in surprise.

"Ahh, Kirito!" Tsuna exclaimed. "Uhm, this is Nagi, she wants to help and I-"

"I saw her Health Bar added to our party," Kirito said. "Nice to meet you, Naginebbia."

Nagi nodded shyly. "You too, Kirito-san," she whispered almost inaudibly. "I'm sorry to intrude."

Tsuna's companion chuckled. "Don't be. Natsu is shy, it's unusual for her to talk to strangers. I'm glad she made a friend."

"Not _that_ shy," Tsuna huffed. Nagi giggled quietly, causing the other two to look at her. She blushed.

"Uhm..." she said softly. "Y-you two are very close, aren't you?"

"Err..." Kirito said awkwardly. "I guess... Natsu reminded me of my little sister at first... I haven't known her for long, but I guess you could say she's my best friend. Natsu, you alright?"

"Hiieeeh!" Tsuna squeaked in a high-pitched voice. Her cheeks were bright red. "It's nothing! I'll just get some fresh air!"

She ran out of the room.

Neither Kirito nor Nagi saw her big silly grin and happy dance outside.

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

 **December 3rd, 2022**

The raid group moved through the forest early the next morning on their way to the Boss Room. Tsuna's party trudged along at the very end. Kirito had been elected their leader by unvoiced agreement.

"We are the smallest party, so we are to target the guard mobs of the «Ruin Kobold Sentinels»," Kirito explained.

"We know," Asuna said quietly.

"Good," Kirito answered. "We'll split into two pairs. One member deflects the sentinel's pole axes, and the other switches in at that moment."

"Switch?" Asuna and Nagi asked, causing them to look at each other.

Kirito visibly startled. "Is this your first time playing in a party?"

Nagi nodded, Asuna said yes.

Kirito and Tsuna exchanged a look and groaned.

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

Eventually, they decided that Kirito would partner with Asuna and Tsuna with Nagi, seeing as Kirito and Tsuna had more experience in both fighting and fighting in a team. The pairs would watch each other's backs but take on goblins individually.

Between Nagi and Tsuna, it was decided that Nagi would deflect attacks and Tsuna would switch in to attack. Tsuna wasn't too sure about that approach seeing as Nagi was inexperienced and only at Level 8, unlike her and Kirito who were both at Level 12, and Asuna who was at Level 11. But Tsuna wielded a dagger with quite a few upgrades and Nagi only a basic spear, so Nagi was better suited for defense.

They reached the Boss Room's door at noon. Tsuna's heart was beating hard in her chest, and her mouth felt dry. She tried telling herself that her in-game body couldn't possibly feel those things, it was just her imagination, but had trouble believing herself. Tsuna was terrified.

Diavel hit his sword on the ground. "Listen up everyone," he announced. "I have only one thing to say... Let's win! Here we go!"

And with that, he turned and pushed the large door open. Behind loomed darkness. Tsuna swallowed hard. Kirito squeezed her shoulder, then he went in after Diavel. Tsuna, Nagi, Asuna and the rest of the raid group followed.

Red eyes and a huge, hulking figure waited inside. When they were thirty metres into the Boss Room, the room suddenly lit up, revealing Illfang the Kobold Lord. The monster jumped up high, and the ground shook as it landed.

 _Hieeehh!_ Tsuna's brain shrieked.

The First Floor Boss was at least four metres tall, packed with bulging muscles, with dark red leathery skin. In one hand he carried an enormous battle axe, in the other a shield. Red eyes glowed meanly from behind his helmet. At his feet, three shorter creatures covered completely in armour spawned, carrying maces.

The monsters stood for a moment, taxing them. Then they charged.

"Commence attack!" Diavel shouted.

Chaos broke out. All players charged forward. Diavel shouted instructions, Tsuna had however forgotten if her party was Squad A, D, or F, and just followed Kirito's lead and her gut instinct.

The situation was somewhat under control until Illfang's first Health Bar was empty. That was when three new sentinels spawned, while the original three weren't destroyed yet.

Kirito attacked one of them, and deflected its mace. "Switch!" he shouted.

With a loud cry, Asuna ran forward, her rapier lighting up. "Haaahhh!" she yelled as her weapon pierced into the monster with incredibly speed. Her hooded cloak fluttered, revealing a lithe, feminine figure. But from the side, another was attacking.

"Nagi!" Tsuna yelled.

"Hai!" Nagi shouted back, and ran forward. Her spear lit up as she brushed the mace of the Kobold Sentinel aside. "Switch!"

Tsuna's dagger sliced into the monster. It's HP dropped about a by fifth. "Again!"

It took six more attacks until the monster finally shattered. By then, pandemonium reigned in the Boss Room. With the destruction of yet another of Illfang's Health Bars, more Kobold Sentinels had been spawned.

Tsuna lost all sense of time. Only Nagi at her side mattered, and protecting Kirito and Asuna's backs while they fought. There seemed to be no end to the sentinels, until suddenly, there was. Confused, Tsuna looked up. Indeed, the sentinels were almost all gone. Nagi beside her dropped to her knees, breathing hard. Her Health Bar had dropped to below half of what it was supposed to be, the green replaced by yellow. Tsuna's own was barely half full and yellow as well. Kirito and Asuna seemed fine.

Before them, Illfang roared and threw his axe away.

"Stand back!" Diavel shouted and ran forward. "I'll go!"

Tsuna's stomach dropped as something inside her screamed, _No! Don't go!_

Illfang drew a new large blade from a sheath at his back while Diavel ran forward. "Stop!" Tsuna heard Kirito scream, but it was too late. Illfan jumped. With incredible speed, it launched itself up, and then lunged from pillar to pillar of the Boss Room, almost impossible to track. And then the ground shook as he landed swinging his blade, and Diavel screamed and was thrown back, a large glowing wound on his chest. Illfang charged again, and Diavel was thrown back. Tsuna more felt than saw Kirito running to where he was thrown, but most of her attention was on Illfang.

The monster jumped right into the midst of the raid group and roared at them.

And that fire was back in her veins. The fire that had been there the night Coper had died. The one that said, _Fight! Protect! Win!_ Tsuna ran forward and smashed into Illfang dagger first, just before he could attack the players. The monster roared and threw her into a pillar, her health bar dropping into the red. Blearily, while fumbling for a potion, she saw Nagi charge the monster while the players stood frozen. Saw her dive under an attack and attack from behind.

And saw Diavel shattering into pieces in Kirito's arms.

 _No._

 _No._

 _No._

That was all her mind said in disbelief.

The potion kicked in and she stood. With an angry roar, she ran at the monster, forgetting everything else. She didn't notice that she was faster than her dexterity should have allowed. She didn't know that her strength shouldn't have been sufficient to cause as much damage to Illfang's health as it did. All that mattered was defeating the monster.

Her attack hit and the monster screamed. Then its shield was coming down on her and there was no way to defend, not that Tsuna cared, she was beyond reason and screamed back at the monster, fully intent on beating it back with her mere fists.

Then Nagi slammed into her from the side and hit them both out of the way of the devastating attack. Kirito and Asuna ran past them, weapons lit up with their sword skills, as they attacked like they'd been working together all their lives. An attack almost hit Asuna, her cloak was destroyed, revealing long chestnut hair, and light brown eyes set in a beautiful face.

"Heal!" Nagi screamed over Tsuna's body, a healing crystal in her hand. She had tears in her eyes.

Tsuna's health was restored.

Oh.

It had been pretty much empty.

Behind Nagi, she saw Kirito thrown back, Asuna attempting to protect him. But then the rest of the raider group attacked Illfang, saving Kirito and Asuna.

Tsuna got up on her feet, handing Nagi her last healing potion. "Thanks," she whispered. Then she ran at the monster that was about to jump on the large dark-skinned man that had stood up for the beta players back at the meeting, so long ago even when it was only yesterday.

"Hyaaaahhhh!" she screamed, her dagger lit up in front of her. And then Kirito was beside her with his sword, and they crashed into the monster and threw it back. They hit the ground but were on their feet almost instantly, and without any words, attacked again, Tsuna from the left, Kirito from the right, again and again. She heard Kirito's roar echo her own as the Kobold Lord was ripped open under their blades. It was thrown into the air by the force of their attacks.

Then it lit up.

And shattered.

Tsuna collapsed to her knees. She felt cold. Her health seemed to have dropped again, even though she didn't remember getting hit.

A bit of a distance away, Kirito was on his knees too, breathing hard. Their eyes met when he looked up, she saw relief in them. But no happiness or triumph.

There wasn't any in her, either.

Diavel was dead, gone forever.

Nagi dropped down beside her, her hands flitting about Tsuna's shoulders. "Natsu-san, are you alright? I have a potion-"

"I'm okay, Nagi," Tsuna rasped, completely exhausted. "Thank you. You saved me."

"I-I-I was so worried!" Nagi burst out, a sob coming from her. "I thought I wouldn't be fast enough, but then you were okay again, and then you weren't-"

Around them, players celebrated their victory.

"I'm just glad you're not dead!" Nagi sobbed.

"Me too," Tsuna mumbled.

The room, previously lit by rainbow-coloured lights in the ceiling, darkened down as the room was announced as cleared.

Approaching steps made her look up. It was Asuna, and the large guy who had saved Kirito.

"Good job," Asuna said timidly.

"Congratulations!" the large one said.

"No-" Kirito gasped, and Tsuna shook her head.

"This victory belongs to you two!" the large man said warmly. All around, the players applauded them. Tsuna saw Mochida Kensuke looking at Kirito with admiration. Others were looking at her, cheering.

It stupefied her. Maybe she should have felt happy, but there was only numbness in her.

A shout interrupted the cheers. "WHY?!" Kibaou yelled. "Why... Why did you let Diavel die?!" he screamed at Kirito.

"Let him die?" Kirito whispered into the following silence. Kibaou only seemed to get more angry.

"Exactly! You knew the boss's moves! He wouldn't have died if you'd warned him beforehand!"

Wary murmurs and cold looks at Kirito came from the player group. One yelled, "He must have been a beta tester! That's how he knew! But he didn't tell us! And he's not the only one! Admit it, beta testers!"

A different kind of cold spread in Tsuna when she saw the players exchange distrustful looks, each suspecting the others. She scooted closer to Kirito fearfully. Monsters she could handle, but this- this was different.

"I don't understand," Nagi whispered helplessly. Tsuna didn't, either. She just knew something very bad was happening.

"Kirito-" she started, and stopped.

Kirito understood. There was so much pain in his eyes. So much helplessness.

And somehow, she knew that he was going to leave her, and she could do nothing to stop him.

Her fingers moved. The friendship request hovered between them. He looked up at her, and his eyes seemed softer and warmer as he pressed the «Accept» button. "I'll be alright, Natsu," he said softly. "Don't worry."

He turned away from her, and she saw all the kindness drain from his face.

The Boss Room grew silent as he started to laugh harshly. It sounded insane, unhinged, and it hurt Tsuna because every bit of it was a lie and only concealed pain. She grasped Nagi's hand for support and swallowed down a sob as Kirito stood.

"A beta tester?" he asked arrogantly. "Don't put me into the same category as those rookies."

"W-What?!" Mochida yelled.

Kirito fearlessly walked to the room's exit, past the players. "The majority of SAO's thousand beta testers... were amateurs who didn't even know how to level. Even _you_ are better than them."

Tsuna understood now.

"But I," Kirito said, not looking at anyone. "I am different." He stopped walking, his stance shifting into something confident, arrogant. "During the beta testing, I reached floors nobody else could. I knew the boss' attack patterns because I've fought plenty of nodachi-wielding monsters on floors far above this one." A cruel smirk settled on his lips as he faced the players. "I know a lot more than that, too. More than any information broker."

"W-what?" Kibaou whispered.

Tsuna understood now.

Kirito was giving the players a common enemy to hate. Himself. He was sacrificing himself so that everyone would hate him and stop distrusting each other.

"T-that's- forget about being a beta tester!" Kibaou exclaimed. "You're, you're a cheater! A cheater!"

"But-" Nagi next to Tsuna whispered, but she was drowned out by the other players yelling their agreements. Tsuna squeezed her hand, then let go and got up on her feet, moving through the group towards Kirito.

"Cheater! Cheater!" they yelled. "A beta tester and a cheater- you're a beater!"

"That's not a bad name..." Kirito laughed, still with that horrible, horrible smirk on his face. Some people gasped. "Yeah. I'm a _beater_." His finger flicked through his menu as he spoke. "From now on, don't think of me as a mere beta tester." He pressed a button. A long, black cloak settled on his shoulders, fluttering dramatically and making him look like a villain.

But all Tsuna could see was the boy who had saved her life over and over again, who had taught her Maths and English, and about the game, and made her feel like she was someone _not-worthless,_ who believed in her like nobody else ever had.

Kirito strode toward the exit of the room. Nobody said anything.

Tsuna stepped up next to him. He stopped moving. "Natsu," he said.

 _You're my best friend, too_ , she tried to tell him with her eyes, even though he wasn't looking at her. _If you must do this... then I will support you. But you're my friend._

Her voice trembled as she said, "I want you to leave the party. I don't want to see you a-again."

Kirito's fingers opened the menu. A moment later, their party was dissolved. Somewhere in the background, Mochida Kensuke asked dumbly, "Huh? Dame-Tsuna?", but Tsuna spared him now attention.

Kirito left. Asuna ran after him, Tsuna saw them exchange words as she stood there numbly, disbelieving that the first and best friend, the bravest person she had ever known, was leaving her. That she couldn't find it in her to follow, that the most she could do was to assure him of their friendship.

Then Kirito left Asuna behind, too, and stepped out of the First Floor Boss Room as the first person to set foot onto the Second Floor.

There were ninety-nine floors left to clear.

* * *

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ


	6. Party Time

**December 4th, 2022**

Tsuna sat on a wall in the town square of the city of Urbus on the second floor of Aincrad. It was a quaint city, not like the impressive architecture of Starting City and Tolbana. From the feel of it, it reminded her of Namimori, just a little bit. Which made her want to leave, because Namimori had Kaa-chan in it, and that made Tsuna think about how Kaa-chan wasn't with her.

And Kaa-chan not being with her made her think about how Kirito had left her, too. Tsuna knew why he did it, she did, but that somehow made it worse.

She had hoped that they would meet up in the city, but when she asked him via PM where he was, he had replied that it would be better for her if they weren't seen together for a while. Tsuna hated that he was protecting her like that, but she loved him for it, too.

Now she was alone. And she didn't know what to do. Kirito had always been the one with the plans. She'd just sort of tagged along, happy to have someone to follow and call friend. Without him, she felt lost and adrift.

"Ha! Found you, Dame-Tsuna!" a voice said loudly. A shadow fell on her.

It was Mochida Kensuke.

Tsuna's normal reaction would have probably been along the lines of, "Hiieeeh! Mochida-senpai!", complete with jumping up in terror, tripping over her own feet and falling flat on her nose, and subsequently being laughed at by whoever was in the vicinity. However, right now she felt numb over, well, everything, so she only looked up at him and stared blankly until he looked uncomfortable.

"It's Natsu in the game," she said. "Mochida-senpai."

He pointed at her. "I'll call you Dame-Tsuna if I feel like it!" he said boisterously.

She looked blankly up at him again. "Okay," she said.

It didn't matter anyway. What did silly names mean in the face of monsters and death battles? She cared more about what Kirito said _to_ her than what anyone else said _about_ her.

Mochida blinked. He didn't seem to know what to say. "Well!" he said expectantly.

She blinked up at him. He blinked down. Awkward silence followed.

"Anyway!" Mochida said.

Tsuna still didn't answer.

"U-uhm, Natsu-san?" a timid voice said from the side. She looked up. It was Nagi.

"Hi, Nagi-chan," Tsuna greeted. Her former party member fidgeted.

"I-I was looking for you," she said softly.

Tsuna blinked. She hadn't expected that.

"Why?" Mochida demanded. Nagi flushed and took a step back.

"I, I, I-" she stuttered, folding into herself.

Tsuna frowned at Mochida and got up. "Are you all right?" she asked. "Yesterday was pretty… awful."

Diavel died. People turned on the beta players. Kirito made himself scapegoat and then left on his own.

"Uhm... I'm okay," Nagi said softly. "Are you?"

Tsuna forced a grin. "I'm fine."

"What about Kirito-san?"

Tsuna shrugged uncomfortably.

"That _beater_?" Mochida snarled, an ugly expression on his face.

Tsuna ignored him. "He says he's okay." She forced a smile.

"Wait, what?" Mochida asked. "What do you mean, he says he's okay? I thought you kicked him from your party!"

Tsuna blinked at him. "But not from my friends list."

Mochida gaped at her. " _You_ have a friends list?!"

"It's a pretty short list." Tsuna turned back to Nagi. "What are you going to do now?"

"I-I don't know." Nagi fidgeted. "I wanted to ask if you perhaps wanted to maybe party with me? I m-mean, I'd understand if you didn't w-want to, I'm not very good-"

Tsuna sent her a party invite. Mochida sputtered while Nagi's face lit up with a pretty smile as she quickly hit «Accept».

"You- you-" Mochida stuttered.

"Are you alright?" Nagi asked him timidly.

Mochida opened his mouth and closed it again like a fish. A part of Tsuna felt a weird sort of satisfaction at the sight. But she just shrugged and turned back to Nagi. "I have to get some supplies," she said. "Meet me at the gates in an hour?"

Nagi nodded quickly.

"Where are you even going?!" Mochida demanded.

Nagi looked at Tsuna. Tsuna looked at Nagi.

"Well, obviously, you have no idea, because you're just Dame-Tsuna the no-good loser-"

"Don't talk to her like that," Nagi interjected quietly. Mochida faltered, but then continued.

"But you _are_ a citizen from my hometown, and as your senpai I can't in good conscience let you wander about alone, it goes against my honour as a swordsman," he finished pompously.

Tsuna stared at him.

He seemed nervous.

"Well?" he demanded.

"Well what?" Tsuna asked dumbly.

"Well send me a party invite!" he snapped.

"Uhm... I've been wondering… you say all those things but," Nagi mumbled. "Who are you?"

Mochida faltered. "I'm, uh, Ken."

"You want to party with us?" Tsuna asked in confusion. "But you had a party yesterday at the Boss Room raid..."

"I barely even know those guys!" Mochida protested. "Anyway, send me the invite, Dame-Tsuna! It's obvious you have no idea what you're doing, you need guidance-"

"And _you_ know where to go?" she asked quietly.

"Well..." Mochida said and faltered.

"There's a quest I'm going to do," Tsuna said. "It's in the south, on the highest mountain. It's a solo quest, though, a friend told me about it. But there's a hunting ground nearby we can clear afterwards... and there's sure to be plenty of monsters to kill on the way. I think we could get Nagi-chan a level higher by the end of the day."

Mochida stared at her dumbly.

"You think?" Nagi asked hopefully. Tsuna nodded absently.

"Yeah, you should have gotten plenty of XP yesterday, so I don't think it'll take much more for you to level up."

"How do you know all that?!" Mochida demanded angrily.

Dame-Tsuna would have been scared of him and started apologising. Probably would have offered her lunch money as a peace offering, too.

Natsu-Tsuna had cut up a floor boss yesterday and didn't care about his anger.

"My friend Kirito," she answered and turned to leave. "And my friend Argo. Anyway, see you in an hour, Nagi."

"Y-yes!" Nagi exclaimed.

"Hey! You forgot to send me the invite!" Mochida yelled.

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

An hour later found Tsuna at the city gate, looking out at the landscape. Where the first Floor consisted of lovely meadows and forests, this floor was set up as a mountainous region. It was no less beautiful than the floor she'd left behind.

And doubtlessly it would be no less dangerous. She'd have to watch out for Nagi. And maybe Mochida, if he still continued to pester them.

And wasn't that a funny thought, _her_ watching out for them? Watching out for Mochida of all people? Tsuna was still amazed at her own behaviour earlier. She'd just been repeating what Kirito had told her, but they had _listened_. Mochida had even been impressed - okay, more like flabbergasted that she, _Dame-Tsuna_ , had actually something approaching competence, but still...

"So, that invite," his voice said from behind her.

She sighed. "Why do you even want to party with me, senpai?"

"Because it's against my honour-"

"I don't believe you," she said.

He flushed. "Are you calling me a liar, Dame-Tsuna?!" he demanded angrily. "What's it even matter! Anyway, you should follow _my_ lead! I'm older and smarter!"

She frowned at him. "I'm taking precautions. The first day, Kirito and I teamed up with someone who lied about why he wanted to work together." She clenched her fists as she thought about Coper and his pointless death.

"...what happened?" Mochida asked when she didn't say anything further.

"MPK gone wrong," she answered shortly.

"Huh?"

Tsuna shook her head without answering.

Mochida sighed in aggravation. "Look, you're the only one I know in this goddamn game. Even if it's just _you_. I looked for you after... you know. The… tutorial."

"Oh."

She hadn't looked for him. He hadn't even been a blip on her radar until the strategy meeting, and even then she'd put him out of her mind quickly.

"And you turned out not to be so useless yesterday, and you actually have an idea what's going on, and I have _no clue_ about this damn game, and yesterday you saved my life and you didn't even notice and you just fought that monster, and _I don't want to die_ so please just don't abandon me here!" Mochida was breathing hard by the time he finished.

"Oh," she said again, her eyes wide.

"Yeah, _oh,_ " he snarled sarcastically. "Look, I know I was an ass to you. I'm sorry. But this game can _kill us_ , and I'm not so stupid that I won't admit that I need some goddamn help, and I really don't like you, but you're the _only one_ I can ask. So please, _Natsu_ , will you let me party with you?"

She sent him the invite. He accepted.

"Uhm..."

Nagi was staring at them with wide eyes. Mochida flushed once again. It didn't look good on him.

Tsuna sighed and rubbed her temples. It wasn't possible to get a migraine in the game - there was no pain, just slight dull aches and exhaustion - but she almost felt like she was getting one.

"Dammit, I'm eleven!" she said in frustration.

"Me too," Nagi said quietly.

"Fourteen," Mochida said.

She did not _want_ to be responsible for anyone's life. Not here, not ever. The thought was just _scary_ , because what if she failed? What if they _died_?

It didn't seem like she had a choice.

"Ugh," Tsuna muttered. "Okay, are you all ready to go?"

The other two nodded.

"Then let's go."

Together, the three of them set out to explore this new world.

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

Two hours later, Tsuna was seriously questioning her impulse to take Mochida with them.

He talked _. A lot_.

"...and since I've practiced kendo all my life, of course I'd have a natural advantage in this game, but even then, I've lost count of just how many times I nearly died! There was that one time with the Great Nepents..." he boasted to Nagi, who was so intimidated that she could only make small noises. "Of course, l levelled up pretty damn fast with my abilities in kendo - hey, what's your level anyway?"

"Eight," Nagi whispered timidly.

"Huh, I'll have to protect you then. Just stand back, I'll defeat the monsters. I'm Level 10, it shouldn't be a problem." He turned to Tsuna, missing Nagi hugging herself with a sad expression, and asked condescendingly, "And you, what's your level?"

She shrugged. "Twelve."

He sputtered and stood stock still. Right at that moment, a monster looking like an ox, only much, much larger, spawned behind him. «Trembling Ox» it said above its head. The thread indicator above its head was a dark magenta.

"Nagi!" Tsuna yelled as she intercepted the beast before it could reach Mochida. "Switch!"

Nagi charged. Her spear pierced the monster's head, but its Health Bar barely sunk. And then the beast suddenly jumped back, ran around them with incredible speed, and charged again, this time at Tsuna. She was ready, though. But even deflecting the attack, she took damage. "Switch!" she shouted again. "Mochida! Get him from the side!"

"I've got him!"

It took them ten minutes to bring the monster down. Nagi dealt the finishing blow and levelled up.

"Shit," Mochida breathed from where he sat on the ground to catch his breath. "What the _hell_ was that thing?!"

"«Trembling Ox»," Tsuna said, in much the same condition. Nagi was in worse shape though. Her Health Bar had dropped into the yellow zone. Tsuna handed her a restoration potion. "They're common on this floor. There's a «Trembling Cow» monster too, we need to leave before it shows up. It's pretty much a mini-boss and twice as big as the ox. Its milk fetches a pretty good prize, though."

It surprised her just how much she had picked up from just listening to Kirito and reading the guide book.

"Shit," Mochida breathed again. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, _shit_! This game is insane! Do they _want_ us all to die?!"

"We won, though," Nagi mumbled, and blushed when both Tsuna and Mochida looked at her. "I-I'm just really glad to party with you."

"Me too," Tsuna said with a weak grin.

"I guess you girls aren't _too_ bad," Mochida admitted grudgingly. "But we _really_ should get out of here before the cow shows up."

No one objected to that suggestion.

A minute later the next ox showed up.

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

It was a very bedraggled party that found their way into the village of Tarbus in the south of the Second Floor. They collapsed in the chairs of a small café.

"That was crazy!" Mochida gasped.

Nagi and Tsuna only nodded mutely, shocked themselves.

"Five of them! _Five!_ And then the cow showed up, too!"

"Hieeeh..." Tsuna shuddered at the memory. She'd never had reason to be scared of cows. Chihuahuas, yes. Cows, no. Now she knew better.

Mochida threw her a look. "I thought I'd never hear that annoying sound again."

"You thought wrong," she returned.

"What are we going to do now?" Nagi asked. Both and Mochida looked at Tsuna, like _Tsuna_ was in charge. She probably was. She was the one who'd been traveling with the walking guide book that was Kirito. _And_ she was friends with a really good information broker named Argo.

"Sell our stuff, eat and drink," Tsuna said. "I need a coat. It's going to be cold on the mountain."

"Can we at least drink the milk?" Mochida groaned.

"Or we can sell it and buy cake," Tsuna answered. "I think they make cake from the milk."

"Cake," Nagi whispered hopefully.

Mochida whined. "I don't want to mooove."

Tsuna rather thought he sounded like a cow.

"Well," she said. "I'll go get that coat. And some potions. And other stuff."

She didn't want to mooove either.

"Potions. I'll go buy potions," Nagi mumbled. "And crystals."

Mochida groaned again. "You two in a hurry or something?"

"I want to do that quest before someone snatches it," Tsuna explained.

"What quest is that anyway," Mochida griped.

"Martial Arts Quest," Tsuna replied. "I'm not too happy fighting with weapons, and Argo said the reward of the quest is the «Martial Arts» skill. I've been keeping my fourth skill slot empty for it."

"Not happy fighting with weapons, the hell are you doing in Sword Art Online?" Mochida nagged.

Tsuna flushed a bit. "I don't know, okay? It's just, the larger the weapon, the more wrong it feels. That's why I've only got a dagger."

Mochida snorted. "You'd probably trip right into your sword if you had one. But I get it, if there was a katana skill, I'd want that."

"There is," Nagi spoke up, and blushed when he looked at her in surprise. "I heard that if you use «One-handed Curved Blade» enough, you can get a katana skill."

"Well, that's one good thing," Mochida muttered. "Speaking of skills, which do you have? I've got «One-handed Curved Blade», «Parry», and «Battle Healing»."

Nagi fidgeted. "«Two-handed Spear», «Hiding», and «First Aid»."

"«One-handed Dagger, «Hiding», and «Searching». And an Outside System Skill, «Hypersense»."

"What's that?" Mochida asked absently.

"Allows the sensing of presences, says Kirito," Tsuna mumbled. "I don't even know how I got it. It's supposed to be really hard to get, but it just showed up in my menu the second day."

"It sounds useful," Nagi said quietly. Tsuna shrugged.

"I haven't had much use for it." She grimaced. "I'll go get supplies then. We've still got hours until it gets dark."

Mochida groaned again. Nagi hid a smile, and Tsuna rolled her eyes.

Maybe, just maybe, this party wouldn't be so bad.

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

"That is a high mountain," Mochida said when they reached their destination that evening. "Do we _seriously_ have to climb up?"

"Hiieeeh..." Tsuna whimpered in dismay. Nagi didn't look happy either.

It was indeed a large mountain. Steep and unforgiving it towered over them, taller than any of the mountains beside it. There was even snow, it covered the top third of the mountain. The path they were supposed to take was tangled and twisted and went along sharp cliffs.

"I don't even want to know what kind of monsters live up there," Mochida continued. "And by that I mean, let's _not_ go up there."

"B-but we came all this way," Nagi protested softly. "And it's important t-to Natsu-san."

Mochida muttered something unflattering about 'idiot kids and their survival instincts' under his breath.

"R-right," Tsuna said nervously. "Let's go? Argo said we don't have to go up _all_ the way."

They went, all of them casting wary glances around. Nagi had suggested that Tsuna should lead, since she had the «Searching» skill that allowed her to spy monsters better than they did. Nagi as the lowest-levelled of their party walked in the middle, and Mochida followed behind both of them.

Their journey went mostly unobstructed, the biggest hindrance was the barely walkable path itself, though one time they did run into a nest of slug monsters that seriously freaked Mochida out. Luckily, it wasn't nearly as terrible to fight them as it had been to fight the Trembling Cow.

After hours of walking and fighting in between, and at least an hour of Mochida cursing the cliffs, they found themselves standing in front of a cave. "Okay, there's supposed to be a hole in the ground here somewhere," Tsuna said nervously. They spread out to search for it.

"I think I found- kyahhh!" Nagi shrieked and disappeared from view. A splash sounded. Tsuna's and Mochida's wide eyes met, and they ran over and jumped into the hole right after Nagi. Water met the, grabbed them, and carried them through a tunnel. Tsuna shrieked in terror and didn't even notice that she was clutching Mochida's body. Mochida didn't notice either, he was busy shrieking, too. The ride seemed to last forever, but eventually they were spit out on a pile of soft moss in a tangle of limbs.

Tsuna managed to disentangle herself and rolled off the moss to land on soft grass. "I changed my mind, let's do something else." Mochida grunted his agreement.

"N-Natsu? Are you alright?" asked Nagi's timid voice. Tsuna shot up.

"Nagi! You're okay!"

Nagi nodded, looking a bit shaken, but otherwise okay. "Uh, is this the right place?"

Tsuna looked around. They were in a lovely glade enclosed by a crater, only far above could a sliver of blue sky be seen. There was soft-looking green grass, trees laden with fruits, butterflies and birds. A large rock jutted up in the middle of it, towering over everything. "Yeah, it is."

"How'd this Argo guy find this anyway!" Mochida groaned. "Why would he even tell you!"

Tsuna shrugged. "There was an incident with a mob, and Argo had, uhh, sold info to the wrong people, and it got all very chaotic, but I ended up saving Argo's life and we got to talking, and yeah. That's when I got the information. Anyway, there's supposed to be a log cabin near the rock, help me look?"

It didn't take them longer than a half hour to find the cabin. It was smaller than Tsuna had expected and looked nice and homely, with smoke coming out of its chimney. Looks were exchanged between the three party members, then Tsuna stepped forward and knocked. There wasn't an answer, so she entered, the others following her.

"Huh, it's a dojo!" Mochida exclaimed with a grin.

"Shh!" Tsuna hissed, and pointed at the large muscular man standing in the centre of the dojo. He looked scary with his shaved head and long beard. Over his head, the orange quest indicator hung.

"Uhm, hello?" Tsuna asked tentatively. "Sorry for intruding..."

"Idiot, why are you being polite? Dame-Tsuna, it's an NPC!" Mochida hissed behind her.

"Oh, right," she said. "Uhh... is something troubling you, sir?"

That was the customary question to activate quests.

The man shifted minutely to fix her with a look. Tsuna gulped. "You wish to become a disciple?"

"Err… yes?" Tsuna asked unconfidently.

"Even though it will be a long and hard road?" the NPC asked.

Tsuna nodded. "What do I have to do?"

"Follow me and I will show you." The old man stood up and walked past them out of the hut.

"This seems fishy," Mochida hissed. "An old man luring children to strange places. Let's run!"

"It's an NPC," Nagi pointed out. "You said so yourself, Ken-san."

"It'll be fine," Tsuna said. "I already sort-of know what I'll have to do. It's not that dangerous."

"Wait, what?" Mochida demanded, but Tsuna had already strode past him. She hurried to catch up to the NPC, who led her to a large rock that towered over Tsuna's small frame.

"Your training is this: break this rock using only your palms. Once you have succeeded in this task, I will teach you all I know," she was told.

She swallowed nervously. "Hieee… alright, leave it to me."

"Leaving this mountain is forbidden until this rock is split."

"Hey, what're you doing?!" Tsuna squawked as the NPC pulled a small jar and a calligraphy brush out of his robe and swiped the brush over her face. "These marks may not be removed until you have completed your task," he declared, and then he left. Her party members showed up in his place. "So what do you have to do?" Mochida asked. Then he started to laugh. "You have whiskers!"

"Whiskers?!" Tsuna shrieked and rubbed over her cheeks. "Hieee! Get them off!"

Nagi giggled a little. "D-don't worry. It looks cute."

"Get them _off_!"

"You look like that dumb cartoon cat on that show!" Mochida howled, now on the ground holding his stomach with laughter.

"Argh!" Tsuna slammed her palm onto the rock. " And now I have to break this thing with my bare hands!" she wailed. "And he just drew on my face!"

"W-with your hands?" Nagi asked. "But that will take so long!"

Tsuna gave her a strained smile. "It'll be okay. I've distributed a lot of my stat points to strength, so it _should_ be possible."

"Yeah well, and what do _we_ do while you punch a rock?" Mochida demanded, interrupted by hiccups of laughter. "Stand around looking pretty?"

Tsuna slammed her palm at the rock again. "I don't know?" she said. " _You_ aren't much good for anything else."

Mochida growled in aggravation. Then he stalked off. "Come on, Nagi, we'll find some monsters. Might as well level up while Dame-Tsuna plays Karate Kid."

"U-uhm..." Nagi whispered, looking slightly panicked between him and Tsuna. "I-I can stay, Natsu-san!"

Tsuna managed a smile. "Go. Someone needs to watch his back."

Nagi bit her lip. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Tsuna answered. "He's an idiot." The other girl seemed to come to a decision and nodded.

"Alright. I'll b-be back soon!" Nagi declared.

Tsuna nodded. "Take care."

"You too!"

And then Nagi was gone, too, and Tsuna was left with the giant rock. She slammed her palm against it again. It didn't do a thing.

"Hiiieeehhhh..." she whined in despair. "This is impossible!"

She'd be stuck with whiskers _forever_.

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

 **Lexicon**

Aincrad - The floating castle consisting of a hundred floors in the game "Sword Art Online". To clear the game, all floors have to be cleared by defeating a Floor Boss. To do so, the Boss Room has to be found, which can only be done by getting through a labyrinth filled with monsters.

PK - Player Killing, the act of a player killing another in an online game.

MPK - Monster PK: A player using monsters to kill another player

 **Skills**

«Parry»: The ability to use an attack to block an opposing strike with limited damage to the blocking weapon

«Battle Healing»: faster HP recovery during battle

«First Aid»: makes healing items more potent

«Hiding»: Allows for a person to disappear. Only works on targets that use visual tracking

«Searching»: A skill that determines the player's detection range. Allows finding monsters and players in hiding.

«Hypersense»: An Outside System Skill, known in Aincrad as one of the hardest Outside System Skills to obtain. It is a skill that allows the player to sense another player's presence before seeing or hearing them.

«Martial Arts»: Allows the use of sword skills for the player's hand and feet

«Hypersense»: Supposedly warns player of other people's presences

 **Tsuna's party members, their skills and levels**

Natsu (Sawada Tsunayoshi, age 11): «One-handed Dagger, «Hiding», «Searching». Outside System Skill: «Hypersense». Level: 12

Nagi Nebbia (Nagi/Chrome, age 11): «Two-handed Spear», «Hiding», and «First Aid». Level: 9

Ken (Mochida Kensuke, age 14): «One-handed Curved Blade», «Parry», and «Battle Healing». Level: 10


End file.
